Hitachi has decided to join Sony's Global Replacement Program
despite the fact that there have been no reports of battery fires with its
notebooks. The company announced today that it plans to recall 16,000 batteries
used in Japanese market Flora 210W and Flora SE210 notebooks.

Hitachi recalled the batteries as a precaution so that its
customers could have the peace of mind that its laptops weren't in any risk of
danger. By recalling the batteries early, Hitachi can get financial and
logistical help from Sony on replacing the batteries and the company can
hopefully stave off any potential fires by getting replacements in a timely
fashion.

So far we've seen a total of over 7.5 million Sony batteries
recalled with Dell leading the pack at 4.2 million units.
That being said, we can't help but wonder if Hewlett
Packard will eventually cave in and place its batteries on the recall list.
A recall from HP could easily push the total to over 10 million units.

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